There are [people out there](http://www.travelerscenturyclub.org/) on a quest to visit every country in the world, or at least a hundred of them. World travel is the passport to understanding, after all, plus it proves that you are wealthier and more cultured than your friends. (Also, they cheat by considering Prince Edward Island and Greenland independent countries, and by making shit up like “Lampedusa” and “Srpska” which obviously don’t exist.)
When I was [calling Japan](https://www.rootsandgrubs.com/2009/11/06/notice-anything-different-around-here/) the other night, it occurred to me that there someone could take on a cheap and modern version of this quixotic pursuit by attempting to *call* every country in the world, or reach someone there by IM.
Feel free to take this idea and run with it. I’m too busy. I need to catch a flight to Lampedusa.
Good luck with Tristan da Cunha.
We are one of those people trying to visit every country, as are my in-laws. But I don’t think we are trying to prove that we are wealthier and more cultured than our friends. Maybe just a bit crazier for dealing with all that bad airline food! And I hear the KFC in Nakhichevan is particularly good! :p
Our sense of wonder at the exotic is perhaps something of a casualty of improved telecommunications. One of the big draws of amateur radio back in the day way that with just the right equipment, and just the right ionospheric conditions, you could bounce a signal all the way to Russia (or somesuch place), and communicate with an actual Russian (or whoever).
These days, I receive communications from actual Russians on a regular basis, almost all of them scams of some sort or another. It somewhat reduces the novelty of the thing.
Greenland became a sovereign state on June 21, 2009. I like telling this story, because on June 20, 2009, at the bar trivia game we were attending, one of the questions requested that we name the four countries with the greatest land area whose names begin with the letter ‘G’.
They had to call HQ and get an emergency ruling on the matter.
Srpska and Lampedusa (airport code: LMP) exist, they just aren’t sovereign, like Palestine. Me personally, I’m going to try to visit all 71 of these United States.